Downtown Calhoun Fall Events 2026: Rocktober Fest and Beyond

Downtown Calhoun called Rocktober Fest 2026 the start of "spooky season." The festival was set for Saturday, Oct. 10, from noon to 8 p.m., with 226 S. Wall St. as the GPS address. It's now set for Saturday, Oct. 24, one week before a Halloween that also falls on a Saturday.

That two-week move changes the festival's place on the calendar. It was planned as the opening of downtown's Halloween run. Now it lands near the end, between horror screenings at the GEM Theatre, a week after a Harris Arts Center play, and five days after one of the Harris Arts Center's own Rocktober attractions is scheduled to close. The bigger point is what the move shows. Downtown's fall is a near-continuous run of events at the GEM and the Harris Arts Center, and the festival is one date inside it.

The Thursday Call

The Downtown Calhoun team announced the cancellation after meeting with public safety officials and watching the forecast for the approaching hurricane. They explained the decision as a matter of scale:

"With hundreds of vendor tents, inflatables, food trucks, event equipment, a stage, and thousands of people expected downtown, the risks are simply too great."

At first, the Oct. 24 date was pending GDOT permit approval. At 4 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 8, the team posted that no road closures were planned for this weekend. On Friday, Oct. 9, they updated the festival post to say it had been rescheduled for Oct. 24. The festival's own Rocktober Fest page now lists the new date. That page describes the event as drawing 5,000+ visitors to Wall Street and Hwy 41 "each second Saturday in October." This year it's the fourth.

The GEM kept its Saturday-night screening anyway. CFL Flooring's free showing of The Evil Dead was planned as the late-night close to the festival. On the morning of the original date, Downtown Calhoun posted that it was "still on tonight at the Gem at 10 pm" and pitched it as something to do on a rainy day.

What Moves to Oct. 24, and What Might Not

As of Oct. 10, the organizers have announced the new date but haven't republished the full program. The original lineup is the best guide available, though not every piece of it fits the new date the same way.

The Y'Art Sale line is the one that clearly runs into the calendar. The Harris Arts Center and the Visual Arts Guild scheduled the 2026 gallery display for Sept. 14 through Oct. 19, 2026. The original Rocktober date fell inside that window, and the new one comes after it. If you planned to see the work during the festival, the gallery's regular hours before the 19th are the sure option.

The original house rules are likely still a good guide: no outside coolers, and bring a lawn chair if you want to settle in near the stage. CFL Flooring presented the festival. The sponsors were Coosa Valley Credit Union, The Community Foundation of Northwest Georgia, Friends of Calhoun's GEM Theatre, Home Depot, and ML Solutions IV Therapy & Essential Care.

Where Oct. 24 Now Sits

The original street plan for Oct. 10 closed Wall Street/Hwy 41 from Line Street, at the CVS light, to Hicks Street, at the City Hall light. It also closed Court Street from Wall Street to Park Avenue, from 5 a.m. Saturday until midnight. Piedmont Street and Park Avenue stayed open as alternate routes. The Piedmont Street parking garage and the Park Avenue lot were available. Nobody has published a closure plan for Oct. 24 yet, so treat that layout as the original design, not a confirmed one. The DDA's listed number for questions is 706-602-5570.

Here's the rest of late October around the new date:

1. Oct. 13: House on Haunted Hill at the GEM, 10:30 a.m. and 7 p.m.
2. Oct. 15: The Haunted Mansion at the GEM, 7 p.m.
3. Oct. 16–18: Calhoun Little Theatre's The Odd Couple (Female Version) at the Harris Arts Center, 212 S. Wall St.
4. Oct. 17: Hardwired: A Tribute to Metallica at the GEM, 7:30 p.m.
5. Oct. 19: Last day of the Y'Art Sale gallery display.
6. Oct. 22: Suspiria at the GEM, 7 p.m.
7. Oct. 24: Rocktober Fest, rescheduled.
8. Oct. 29: Beetlejuice at the GEM, 7 p.m.
9. Oct. 30: Silver Bullet at the GEM, 10 p.m.
10. Oct. 31: A Harris Arts Center watercolor class from 10 a.m. to noon, $40 or $35 for members, then The Shining at the GEM at 10 p.m.

The Gordon Gazette community calendar carries the GEM's October listings. The Discover Gordon County listing has details on The Odd Couple. On the old schedule, Rocktober came before nearly all of this. On the new one, it falls in the middle of it, two days after Suspiria and five days before Beetlejuice.

The Run Doesn't Stop at Halloween

The GEM's calendar keeps going into November. Free Halloween programming wraps up with Coco at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 1. The next day, the Harris Arts Center opens its 22nd Annual Festival of Trees, which runs Nov. 2 through Dec. 6, 2026. The galleries fill with decorated trees, wreaths, centerpieces, gift baskets and artwork, all made and donated by community members. Selected pieces go into a silent auction. Admission is free, and the galleries are open Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Because of those weekday-only hours, Festival of Trees doesn't fit an evening or weekend visit the way the GEM's shows do. The GEM's November lineup, from its ticketing calendar, mostly runs in the evenings and on weekends:

• Resurrection: A Journey Tribute, Nov. 7 at 7:30 p.m.
• Friday the 13th, Nov. 13 at 11 p.m.
• Cherokee Tales, Nov. 16 at 10 a.m.
• Planes, Trains & Automobiles, Nov. 19 at 7 p.m.
• Mickey's Christmas Carol, Nov. 20 at 5 and 7 p.m.
• The Polar Express, Nov. 21 at 3 and 7 p.m.

By the third week of November, the GEM has switched from horror to holiday films, while the Festival of Trees still has more than two weeks to go.

December Runs Along North Wall Street

The December calendar picks up right after the Festival of Trees closes. Gremlins plays Dec. 4 at 7 p.m. and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Dec. 6 at 3 p.m. Bluegrass performer Rhonda Vincent plays Dec. 12 at 7 p.m. The ticketing page notes that it's a rental concert and isn't produced by or affiliated with the GEM. The film schedule then runs through the holidays:

The biggest street event of the season comes in the middle of that run. Calhoun's Christmas Parade of Lights, organized by Explore Calhoun-Gordon County, is in its 31st year. It runs Dec. 10 from 7 to 9 p.m. This year's theme is "A Star-Spangled Christmas," honoring America's 250th anniversary. The evening opens with local school choirs along the route and ends with Santa Claus.

The parade's street details are already published, unlike the Rocktober closures:

• Route: North Wall Street, from Line Street to Oak Street
• Closure: North Wall Street closes to local traffic from 5:30 to 8 p.m.
• Entries: Must be in place by 6:30 p.m., entering North Wall Street from Red Bud Road

The parade route begins at Line Street, which is also where Rocktober's original closure began. Rocktober's closure ran from Line Street to Hicks Street, and the parade runs along North Wall Street from Line Street to Oak Street. In the post sharing the remaining calendar after the postponement, Downtown Calhoun said dates for all of 2027 are "coming soon." Until those dates come out, the GEM and the Harris Arts Center have the rest of 2026 planned out through Dec. 20.

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